‘Dukes of Hazzard’ Star Catherine Bach Opens Up About Husband’s Suicide: ‘I Prayed a Lot’

Promotional portrait of the cast of the television show, "The Dukes of Hazzard," circa 1982. Left to right: Actors Denver Pyle (1920 - 1997), Catherine Bach, Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer. (Fotos International / Courtesy of Getty Images)

By Kayla Kunkel

Published July 26, 2019 at 7:55am

On April 30, 2010, music attorney Peter Lopez died by suicide — he was only 60 years old. Now his wife, “Dukes of Hazzard” star Catherine Bach, has opened up about how she leaned on her faith as she grieved her husband’s sudden death.

Lopez, who had represented stars like Michael Jackson, married Bach in 1990 and the couple had two daughters together. As far as Bach remembers, their life was filled with love.

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“I always thought, ‘Well gosh, I’m so happy,’” Bach said, according to Fox News. “’I am so blessed with my family and a man that I love so much. What problems? I have no problems. I’m able to stay home with our kids. He makes a good living, he was a lawyer. This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.’”

“And then all of a sudden it was just gone.”

Lopez was at their California home on April 30th when Bach and others nearby heard a gunshot. Someone who worked for the family soon found Lopez’s body and called 911.

Bach told Huffington Post in 2013 that nothing about that morning seemed out of the ordinary — which only added to her confusion about her husband’s <,a href="https://www.westernjournal.com/l/loren-eaton/robin-williams-son-raising-awareness-suicide-nearly-5-years-fathers-death/?ff_source=Email&ff_medium=conservative-brief-WJ&ff_campaign=dailypm&ff_content=western-journal">sudden death.

“My oldest daughter and I read so many books right after my husband died trying to figure out why, why, why would this happen?” she said. “He didn’t take drugs, he rarely drank, we were financially stable so… why?”

“That’s what’s so crazy about this,” Bach told “Entertainment Tonight” a year earlier. “There’s no signs. Peter didn’t drink, didn’t take drugs.”

Even though she was left with many questions and unfathomable grief, she found that she was able to find more strength as she opened up about the tragedy.

“So many people came to me and they said, ‘My mom stayed in bed with a bottle for five years.’ And, ‘I take drugs to get through this.’” Bach said, according to Fox News. “I just couldn’t do that. So I prayed a lot. I went to church a lot.”

“I stayed very close to my priest who I really trust… It’s what kept me alive.”

Now 9 years after her husband’s death, she is writing a book about the experience and how she managed to stay strong for her daughters.

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“I’ve got the book written, it’s a little long right now,” she said. “I’ve got an editor, and I’m sure that a publishing house will have their editors. So we’ll see how it ends up.”

“But I definitely want to share my story in hopes that it will help others.”

Poster Comment:

Boss Hogg never could get those Duke boys.